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Chonga Nation
Upon the equatorial savannas of Kendul reside the Chonga Nation, a fierce and proud people known for their riding of lions. Distinct from all their neighbors through the customs and strong ties to their ancestral homeland, the Chonga have a deep and rich history and the most powerful cavalry forces in the world. Geography For the Chonga Nation, borders are a different concept, for as a naturally nomadic people, they are used to following the migration patterns of the herds of gazelles and zebra that they hunt for food. Physically, the geography is very homogeneous, with large, flat expanses of dry land with few trees and watering holes only appearing for half the year during the rainy season. Because of this, though, the Chonga have become expert map-makers, carefully charting out all pockets of resources and marking routes down to the very last detail. However, in recent times, with the genesis of new nations with stricter border policies, the Chonga have been forced into smaller spaces with set boundaries. Most of the savanna belongs to the Chonga, stretching from the equator all the way down to the negative third parallel in the stretch of land that exists in between the edges of the Wilds of Kendul and the shore colonies maintained by Etrein, which forms the entirety of their eastern border. These fronts are both areas of relative peace for the Chonga. Chonga people generally shy away from the density of the jungles, as it does not lend itself to the type of open hunting and warfare of the savannah, but they still honor the jungle as the mother of life and hold sacrifices to honor the spirits of the wilderness. In the east, they see Etrein as their friend and ally, often trading goods of the savanna with precious items obtained by the traders and pirates or working as mercenaries on Etreini ships. On their southwest border the savannah gives way to brush and there exists the tiny kingdom of Daiko, where the Chonga people find their closest ally. The two people groups consider themselves to be of the same ethnic origin, despite their difference in lifestyles, and the seasonal return of the Chonga to the brush is cause for great celebration in Daiko, often leading to festivals and exchanges of goods. To the south, the savanna turns into a desert, and the Chonga mark this as the edge of their influence, ceding the desert to their neighbor and enemy to the south, Shuiv Fros. However, while the two ethnic groups are radically different in linguistic and traditional influences, the wars of the past are long forgotten, and they largely just leave each other alone. The northern border is far more complicated, for though space past the equator is the savanna which the Chonga claim as theirs by right, the Vusani Empire has since expanded into the narrow stretch of savanna between the Okoto Mountains and the wilderness and holding onto it with military force, preventing the entry of Chonga people into the empire but also keeping the Chonga people within their borders from exiting. This has led to tensions between the two powers for years, and the Vusani threat has served as a unifying factor for the Chonga Nation, rallying sentiments against the empire and in empathy with the Chonga being held in the empire’s borders. Generally, Chonga expatriates are limited to three or four places. Due to proximity and cultural similarity, the largest amount of Chonga people outside of the savanna by far inhabits Daiko. Crippled or disabled Chonga are often left to live in Daiko, where Chonga families seeking life partnership will also often flee, due to commonalities in language and more. Older Chonga men will often also retire here, or even just Chonga who prefer a more sedentary lifestyle. Chonga communities exist all over Daiko, and though they are very much looked down upon by nomadic Chonga, they still maintain many aspects of matriarchy and religion, even in second and third generations. Chonga men (and banished women) will also move to Etreini cities along the coast seeking work, leading them to travel all across the world in ships, and, because of this, it is not uncommon to see Chonga men even in in the Etreini cities on Emer. Some of these Chonga also experience the Call of the North travel to the Northern Territories, though this is extremely rare, given the limited population of Chonga. The most controversial aspect of estranged Chonga are, of course, the Chonga people held the Vusani Empire. For three or four generations, the Chonga here have been forbidden from raising lions (leading to them doing so in private or worshipping wild ones), and the Vusani have conscripted and scattered them across the empire. Even so, though, these descendants of Chonga will often still speak the tongue and practice the religion in their own ways (with some choosing to get lion tattoos) and some even escape the empire and attempt to return to the savannah, only to be rejected. Government Because the Chonga Nation are more of a confederation of two hundred and thirty-nine ethnically and culturally tribes, there is no “central government” per say. However, the Chonga do still have customs or rule that bind them together as a cohesive unit and by which most tribes are generally organized. Very strict in terms of gender roles, all Chonga tribes are divided into male and female subcategories. In Chonga society women stay with the tribe that they are born into for life, but men are expected to find their own way and wander between the various tribes. Thus, all women born into a tribe are permitted to become part of the matriarchy when they come of age (Chonga are generally expected to make their first kill around the age of fourteen) compose the tribe’s central matriarchy, but men are only ever caregivers and carriers of wisdom and knowledge. Though they may use the knowledge they have accumulated travelling between tribes to offer advice, they are never considered as part of the decision-making process, and their voice is not counted in the process of achieving unity. In addition to hunting and providing for the tribe, the matriarchy makes decisions for the tribe in terms of dividing resources and conducting ceremonies by communal meetings where the eldest (or most capable) woman acts as a moderator, helping all the matriarchs work through their decisions until a general consensus (or something close) is reached. Though all women have a right to speak, elder voices are generally treated with more respect and given more weight when the group makes decisions. On a more macro level, tribes are organized in a vague sort of vassal system, where larger (most tribes split if they reach a size of one hundred and fifty, but clan heads do not) tribes will fly distinct symbols (usually remains of animals) prescribed to their clan, and smaller ones will fly those same items to show their loyalty to the clan, but marked with their own tribe-specific symbol. Men will often only move between tribes of the same clan and act as messengers or news and wisdom, helping the clans to stay coalesced within their specific identity. The current clans of the Chonga people are Zebra (composed of ninety-eight different tribes), Gazelle (composed of fifty-two different tribes), Rhino (composed of thirty-five different tribes), Giraffe (composed of sixteen different tribes), Ostrich Feather (composed of twelve different tribes), Bison (composed of eleven different tribes), Hyena (composed of eleven different tribes), and the four clan-less tribes. Many tribes were historical enemies, but, with the advent of the Daiko Reformations, a general peace has settled throughout the savannah, and most conflicts are resolved not through war, but through discussions conducted at the House of Elders, a sacred temple built on the edge on the edge of the savannah by the Daiko Kingdom where elder women too old for the nomadic lifestyle live out the rest of their days as peacemakers, ambassadors, and functional leaders of the confederation of clans. The House of Elders is also the gate through which all clans pass when entering the Daiko Kingdom during the dry season, and it works in that sense to preserve the peace between clans. Because it lacks for a government, the Chonga have no central institutions or even a military, but tribes that lead a clan are capable of calling together all the tribes to unite as a military force, and vassal tribes are often encouraged to pay dowries to their clan heads. Similarly, all tribes (barring those on the brink of starvation) must give some kind of gift when passing through the House of Elders in order to receive the blessing of entry, making voluntary exchange the only kind of large scale ‘taxation’ in the Chonga Nation. On a micro level, though, individual property is not really considered to be a thing in a tribe, so no one person can hoard all the food or all the grain for his or herself. Similarly, though there is no written law code, tribes will generally work on the same moral principals the punish acts on a case by case basis, usually with corporeal punishment, and the highest crime for men being death and the highest crime for women being banishment. Social Life Lion Riding For a Chonga person, the most important aspect in life is one’s lion. At the age of two, once it is sure a child will survive, the child is spiritually bonded with a lion cub in a ritual ceremony known as Kulo. From that moment onwards, the two are bonded for life, with an empathetic and spiritual connection that allows the two to work and feel in unison. This same connection also slows the aging process of the lion, allowing it to age more in tandem with the human (though lifespan for the lion is usually capped around sixty). Lions are all given names, the same as humans, and will accompany their bonded human everywhere, including in the hunt and in battle. If the human dies, the lion will stop eating and mourn at the human’s grave until it dies as well, and similarly, if their bonded lion died, any honorable Chonga would kill him or herself afterwards. Because of this, Chonga social patterns follow those of their lions, with women doing all the hunting for a tribe, and men staying to set up camp and care for those incapable of conducting the hunt. Duties of men also include healing arts, burial of the dead, the raising of children below the age of twelve, mapmaking, and the message-carrying. Outside of this, though, men serve a very tertiary function in the tribe, usually only staying one or two years at the most before moving to another tribe, while women, on the other hand, stay for life. Age Rituals Age is also very important in Chonga society, and is measured in the number of full dry seasons one has experienced. At two, Chonga undergo their Kulo. At eight, they begin to train in archery and other forms of the hunt. At twelve, both girls and boys are permitted to hunt with the women of the tribe. By fourteen, it is expected that a Chonga will have made their first kill, which signifies a coming of age and permits the right to love. This is also the age at which boys become men and leave their tribes for the first time. At thirty-six, women are permitted to retire from the hunt and move to the House of Elders. Age also permits rank in society, as younger members of the clan are expected to heed the judgement of their elders, regardless of gender. Gender Relations In Chonga society, there is no marriage. Polygamy is generally the accepted way of life, and as fathers move from tribe to tribe, most children are raised communally, leading to them having very little attachment to their birth parents. Women who are weaning their children are permitted to stay at camp for the hunt, but most tribes consider that there need only be one mother for every two suckling babes, and that those farther from their last birthing have a duty to come to the hunt. In addition, a baby is permitted to drink human milk for only one year after its birth, after which is may only drink lion’s milk. Because of this, parenthood is never seen as a reason for sex, for while it is regarded as a holy and clean activity, it is only an expression of the freedom of love within Chonga society. Homosexuality is thusly widely accepted (though variations to gender norms are not). Because marriage is not accepted, though, and men are never expected to stay in a single tribe for too long, cases of couples falling too deeply in love to give up their children do occur (albeit rarely), which will lead to tribe desertion and the said couples taking their children into either Daiko or to one of the four tribes that bow to no clan (because these tribes have fewer social strictures and arrange based on merit and not gender). Ethnicity All Chonga clans are ethnically homogenous in nature, with the people being dark-skinned with mossy hair and yellow eyes. Daiki is the only language spoken between them, and the only differences being in clan dialects. Notably unique as a language, Daiki incorporates more consonants than usual, including click sounds, and having few compound words, instead choosing to build longer sentences. Chonga Daiki differs from Daiko Daiki in that past and future tenses can also have suffixes added onto them to specify season, and words for animals and natural phenomenon are more specific than the archaic Daiko counterparts. Religion Chonga religion is animistic in nature, imparting morals through stories told about the animals of the world in oral tradition, and recounting fictionalized versions of history (often using clan animals as analogues for those clans). In Chonga religion, the greatest among the spirits of animals is Lion, the hero, and she is often opposed by the trickster god Hyena (who always gets his comeuppance), and most other animals are usually just set pieces. Bugs and flowers are often invoked in the healing process, and after death, it is believed that humans return to the dirt to become lions and vice versa. The angels of Ka are seen merely as fellow animals by the Chonga, for though their power is respected, they have never interfered with Chonga life in a predominantly good or predominantly bad way. Some of the more malicious and powerful angels are feared, but most Chonga experience angels mainly when in Daiko, where they are buy and large benevolent. On the other hand, though, the Chonga vehemently reject the Church of Angels from Etrein, as to them it represents a threat to the stability of their culture, so the only converts are usually expatriates or members of the tribes without clans.